U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole has reinstated President Donald J. Trump’s buyout offer to federal workers under the “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation program. The judge ruled the government unions who filed a lawsuit seeking to block the program lack legal standing and that his court lacks the judicial jurisdiction to even rule on the matter.
Last week, Judge O’Toole delayed the deadline for federal workers to accept the buyout offer, originally slated for February 6 at 11:59 PM, until he could hear arguments from both the plaintiffs and the Trump administration on the matter. The “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation program offers government employees eight months of pay and benefits in exchange for their voluntary resignation at a preset date in the Fall of 2025.
“The plaintiffs here are not directly impacted by the directive. Instead, they allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm,” Judge O’Toole wrote in his decision. He continued: ” The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient.”
In addition, addressing the court’s legal jurisdiction, Judge O’Toole wrote: “Second, this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider the plaintiffs’ pleaded claims. While not binding on this Court, the decision in Am. Fed’n of Gov’t Emps., AFL-CIO v. Trump (‘AFGE’) is instructive. 929 F.3d 748 (D.C. Cir. 2019)… The two APA claims alleged in this case are the type of challenges Congress intended for review within the statutory scheme, which provides for ‘administrative and judicial review.'”
An estimated 65,000 federal employees have already accepted the buyout.
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